Tom`s travels: October 2017

I left Krakow to go to Strasbourg for my second semester right after my trip to Lviv. After getting used to the city, the uni, and meeting the new euroculturers we decided to head to the nearby town of Colmar. We took a train and in about half an hour reached the destination. The walk from the train station was about 10 mins to the beginning of the old town and we decided to just wander around and look at the beautiful buildings. We started our through Rue des Marchands, already walking past the typical maisons á colombages, or timber framed houses, which are ever present in Alsace, the region around there. From there we took a lateral street and reached the Place de la Cathedrale with at its center the large St Martin's Church the largest church in town though not the cathedral as the city doesn't have a bishop. We entered, and visited its Gothic interior which was quite unadorned due to the destruction suffered during the French revolution. We exited the church and continued on, reaching the Place de l'Ancienne Douane with the Schwendi Fountain at its center, dedicated to a military commander by the name of Lazarus Schwendi. Facing the fountain stands the old custom house in a gothic/rensaissance style. Not far ahead we reached the covered market; with lots of food stalls and small shops to buy from. After a brief stop there, we regrouped and, as we exited finally reached the famous Petite Venise. Named so due to the presence of the canals from the Lauch river flowing through the area. We admired the picturesque houses reflected on the canal and then walked further into town. We were getting hungry so we decided to look for a place to eat, after looking into a few places, and a phone call to a friend by one of the members of the group we ended up having lunch at the Bistrot Gourmand. There we all had different kinds of salty crepes which tasted really good. Feeling full we walked a little more, first through Rue des Clefs and then to Place des Dominicains with its church which was closed. At that point we were wondering if to continue on or not, a few people wanted to leave and as it started to rain we all decided to head back to the train station and eventually back to Strasbourg.

View of the back of St Martin's Church

Petite Venise

Another part of the Petite Venise

Timber framed houses

After coming back from Strockholm we were ready for another trip. Just two days later we were on a bus headed for Lviv in Ukraine. Though not too far (about 330km away) the bus journey was one of the longest and worst I ever had. We left around 5am and arrived at 11am in Lviv, having lost nearly 2 hours at the border. On the way back it was even worse with about 3-4 hours stopped at the border control (I guess the EU wants to be certain of who enters, especially from Ukraine). After reaching the town with the tram (cost was 2 hryvnia equaling to 6 euro cents), we headed to our hostel Randevu to check in and leave our luggage. We were the only guests in the hostel apart from the young lady working at the reception. After leaving our stuff we headed into town and reached the main square, the Rynok. At its center stands the town hall, rebuilt after a fire during the 19th century. Along the square's perimeter stand tenement houses several architectural style from the Renaissance to Modenism and at the four corners are fountains with greek gods dating to the 18th century. Right across from it stands a bakery which makes super tasty cheesecakes and strudels, of which I had the latter, in the tradition of Galicia the region which the city belongs to. We then entered the town hall and ascended the tower (cost 5Hr) with a beautiful view over the old town. As it had snowed quite a bit in the previous days, and was still snowing that day, all the landscape was white and it looked really cool. Getting back down to the street we entered in the Lviv Historical Museum hosted inside the Korniakt Palace with its Italian courtyard and called as the little Wawel because of it. The interior consisted of a few baroque and neoclassical rooms with paintings and objects from that period. The lady working there spoke Polish, as most people in Lviv did, so Ania was able to translate most of the things for me. Right next door from the museum stands probably the prettiest house in town: the Black House. Built during the 16th century for an Italian tax collector, as other houses around the square, it is built in sandstone which has darkened throughout the years giving it the current aspect. In yet another palace, the Bardinelli Palace, next door, also built for an Italian merchant, we visited the museum collection inside consisting of other furniture and objects; particularly nice were the gold artifacts dating to the beginning of the past millennium. After the two museums, we crossed on the other side of the Rynok, and went to a cafe called Svit Kavy where Ania took a coffee to go. Apparently, Lviv is quite famous for its coffee culture. After coffee we headed to the Latin Cathedral, or the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption; originally built during the 14th century now mostly appearing in its baroque form. After the visit, we tried to enter the nearby Boim Chapel, which was supposed to be a beautiful renaissance piece, however it was unfortunately closed. We were starting to be hungry so we decided to look for a place to eat; we ended up on the southern end of town at a place called Puzata Hata which was a kind of fancy canteen. It was self service and you payed by the weight; I took chicken with a few vegetables plus a soup. After lunch we then crossed through the old town and reached the Dominican Church, with its pretty baroque cupola. Right next to it we also visited the Dormition Church, with its interesting bell tower topped in green and the interior in the classic Orthodox style as it belongs to that denomination. Not far we then reached the Museum Arsenal, walking through a heavier snowfall. The building, in Gothic style and dating to the 16th century, holds an interesting collection of weapons and armor; from medieval swords and hussar armor to more modern bayonets. We exited the museum and walked further into town, stopping at a place called House of Legends; a multi-story bar featuring a souvenir shop, restaurant halls, and a rooftop with a view over the city. We climbed up and found out they had even put a car on the rooftop which looked strange but funny. On the way further we stopped at the Lviv Handmade Chocolate where we had an incredibly good hot chocolate and pralines. Walking to the western part of town we reached the beautiful National Opera building with its neoclassical look. For dinner we decided to head to a place called Kumpel, which was actually a chain that holds a few restaurants with different names and specialties around town. There we both had a good beer and then i took some chicken wings with sausage and some sauces to it. After going to sleep quite early and resting the whole night, we woke up later the next day and went to have brunch at the nearby Veronica café. The place had really good pastries, I had two strudels a tea and a few cookies, but a bit expensive for the city average. We then took the tram headed east out of the city center to visit the Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Life. This beautiful open-air museum featured displays of different regional styles of farmsteads, windmills, churches and schools all surrounded by forest. As it had snowed the whole previous day and night, the place looked even more surreal covered in a white blanket of snow. Most of the buildings were closed as they mostly operated during the summer season when the tourists were more present. Some still had people working in them and as we were the only visitors there it was a lovely way to spend a few hours. We managed to see a few 17th and 18th century churches, one of which in the interior too. And a few of the houses from different regions of Ukraine. In one of them, and old man who could speak Polish explained to us all the different musical instruments he could play and showed how to perform on some of them. On another house, a really old lady who could not speak Polish but could understand so Ania was able to translate a bit. After walking around the place, we decided to head back into town and continue our exploration. We took the tram back to Rynok and then walked in the westward direction. We stopped at a famous candy store called Roshen which was filled with people, and bought some candies and chocolate ourselves. We then continued on and reached the Lviv National Art Gallery which is hosted in two buildings one of which is the Potocki Palace, built in the 19th century in the French classicism style. Inside were several paintings from Polish, Italian, French, Dutch and other artists. After seeing the nice paintings inside we headed back out into the snowy weather and walking further reached the Cathedral of St George. Standing on top of a hill in its baroque-rococo splendor it overlooks the entire town and serves as the mother church of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. From there we walked back into town and stopped at the Pravda Beer Theatre where we had some good beer and a bit of snacks. We stayed there for a while until the time for dinner came as we had reserved at a place called Baczewski right next door and part of the Kumpel group restaurants. Beautifully decorated inside, with trees and plants all over, this restaurant served traditional Galician and Jewish Galician specialties. We tried the local specialty, banosh, a kind of maize porridge and I had a duck fillet while Ania took mushroom with buckwheat porridge and grilled vegetables, everything was tasty and well priced. We felt though sorry for the birds who were kept in cages right at the center of the main room and a mean kid would just pester them the whole time. As dinner came to an end we figured out we didn't have much time left so we decided to quickly take a tram however we couldn't find any headed to the train station. At one point we decided to look for a taxi but figured we didn't have that much cash left. Luckily three women were also looking to go to the station so we managed to share one with them and ended up paying much less than we expected. Once there we eventually waited a bit for our bus which was obviously late which then carried us back to Krakow after nearly 3 to 4 hours stop at the border for passport check and a sleepless and tiring ride home.